Elderly Florida Woman Faces Arrest After Refusing To Pay HOA Fines

An elderly Florida woman says she has been living as a fugitive in a borrowed SUV and has been in hiding in another state for six months after a dispute with her homeowners association led to a warrant for her arrest.

Ying Pang, a licensed medical technologist who immigrated from China more than 30 years ago, claims she cannot return to her Wesley Chapel, FL, home that she's owned since 2010 because she is worried that her neighbors will call the police on her.

"I live in my car, I cannot go home, I have nowhere to go," she tells Realtor.com®. "They want to put me in jail, and they want to sentence me."

Years of HOA violations led to a warrant

Pang tells Realtor.com that in 2018, her HOA began citing her for things like not taking down holiday lights, parking on the street, leaving garbage containers out too long, and discoloration on her house.

"I got about 100 violations in seven years," Pang says. "I would always respond, and do things like power wash and paint the house several times."

Pang was renting out her home to tenants when she received the violations.

Neighbor Jen Lavelle told Tampa Bay 28 that Pang's renters and their guests caused problems.

"There was, like, naked women coming out of the house—like to come and get the mail and everything," Lavelle told Tampa Bay 28.

But Pang insists her tenants were "really good and quiet" and had lived there for several years before moving out at the end of last year.

Details of the lawsuit

A lawsuit was filed against Pang in 2023 by Northwood of Pasco Homeowners Inc. over $534.98 in fines.

According to court documents, Pang agreed to settle the case and to pay the HOA's attorney fees of $5,500 in March 2024.

"Small compliance fines become financially devastating once fee shifting starts," says attorney Chad D. Cummings, of Cummings & Cummings Law in Florida. "The homeowners association is allowed to pursue attorney fees and costs in enforcement litigation, and those numbers can dwarf the underlying fine. This happens all the time. A relatively small fine escalates into thousands in attorney fees, plus ongoing court costs."

However, Pang never paid the fines or fees.

She later fired her attorney and filed a countersuit against the HOA, claiming a pattern of unfair and unlawful behavior, including harassment, discriminatory enforcement, and abuse of the legal process.

Court records indicate a judge ultimately ruled in the HOA’s favor after Pang failed to appear at hearings and mediation sessions, leading to a contempt of court finding for not submitting a required fact information sheet.

An arrest warrant against Pang was signed by a judge in late June.

"Deputies showed up to my house, but I was not home," she says. "That's when I left. If I go back, I will be arrested. I'd rather be homeless than in jail."

But according to court records, the arrest warrant will be dismissed if Pang simply fills out the fact information sheet.

"I don't want to give them my Social Security number and my bank information, because I do not trust them," Pang says. "So I rejected that."

Future plans

Pang says she is now considering selling her home—which has been deteriorating in her absence since she's out of money.

"This ordeal has broken my heart, and it's totally changed my life," she says. "But I have to fight, to let everyone know how the HOA has treated me. I never thought something like this could happen in this country."

The Northwood HOA did not immediately respond to questions from Realtor.com.

Proposed bill in Florida could give residents the power to dissolve HOAs

Meanwhile, a newly introduced bill by Florida state Rep. Juan Porras would allow residents to vote to dissolve their homeowners associations altogether.

The proposal would permit homeowners to disband an HOA by majority vote, marking a significant potential change in a state that has the nation’s second-highest number of HOAs.

The legislation remains in its early stages, with no committee hearings scheduled and possible amendments that could alter how associations are dissolved or how related disputes are handled in a proposed court system.

But Cummings says dissolving homeowners associations altogether could be a mistake.

"Many subdivisions rely on the association to own and maintain stormwater systems, private roads, retention ponds, entrance structures, lighting, perimeter walls, and drainage easements," he says. "If no entity collects assessments, no one performs inspections, repairs sinkholes, clears culverts, or maintains required permits for shared amenities."

In Cummings' opinion, "the better solution is to enforce existing law against abusive associations and vendors, not to create a new dissolution regime," he says.